September 2011 Newsletter

After months of preparation, the first annual conference is right around the corner. If you haven’t registered yet, there is still time! The theme is “Human Scale and the Human Good: Creating Healthy Communities in a Global Age.” The conference will be held on September 24 at Mount St. Mary’s Univeristy in Emmitsburg, MD.

There will be plenty of time for interaction with the speakers as together we discuss ways to strengthen our local communities. This is a day you won’t want to miss. Registration is $20 ($15 for students) or $25 at the door. You can register onlinehere, and see the conference schedule below.

HUMAN SCALE AND THE HUMAN GOOD:

Creating Healthy Communities in a Global Age

September 24th, 2011

Knott Auditorium

Has human life gotten “too big”? How does globalization affect human communities? Can a liberal education teach students to think locally?

Session 1, 9:15 am – 10:30 pm

Mobility and the Crisis of Community

Patrick Deneen, Georgetown University

Allan Carlson, Hillsdale College

Christine Rosen, The New Atlantis

Session 2, 10:45 pm – 12:00 pm

Fostering Vital Places

Mark T. Mitchell, Patrick Henry College

Jason Peters, Augustana College

John Schwenkler, Mount St. Mary’s Univeristy

Session 3, 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm

Localism, Globalism, and the Christian Life

Josh Hochschild, Mount St. Mary’s University

Rod Dreher, American Conservative Magazine

David Cloutier, Mount St. Mary’s University

Session 4, 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

The Habits of Local Community: Reports from the Trenches

Caleb Stegall, Stegall Law Firm

Will Morrow, Whitmore Farm

Philip Bess, University of Notre Dame

Lunch with Keynote Speaker Bill Kauffman (for paid registered guests)

12:15 pm – 1:45 pm

Hosted by the College of Liberal Arts and co-sponsored by Front Porch Republic and the Tocqueville Forum

Faith * Discovery * Leadership * Community

A Joke from the Bar Jester

Two guys are sitting in a bar. The first one says, “Did you know lions have sex ten to fifteen times a night?”

The second one says, “Really? Damn! I just joined the Rotary Club!”

~Jason Peters (with a hat tip to Bill Kauffman

Front Porch Conversations Online:

Aaron Carlson – The Family-Centered Economy: Overall, the key corrolations are clear: functional families are strong and large; strong and large families are function-rich.

Jason Peters – Against Vacation: The vacation, far from being a treatment for a serious illness, is instead a symptom of it.

John Medaille – We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us: One has a free choice of whether to take one’s cocaine in crystal or powdered form. However, while this may be a free choice, it is never a choice of freedom, since either choice leads to slavery.

David J. Theroux – C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism: For decades, many Christians and non-Christians, both “conservative” and “liberal,” have unfortunately embraced an ill-conceived, “progressive” (i.e., authoritarian) vision to wield intrusive government powers

Darryl Hart – You Say Dominion, I say Kingdom: Let’s call the whole world Christ’s. Ryan Lizza’s piece on Michele Bachmann prompted an avalanche of posts from bloggers and columnists who took issue with effort to link the Congresswoman from Minnesota to the political theology of Dominionism.

Will you invest in our mission by supporting us today? Giving is safe and easy through our website. And it’s entirely tax-deductible: Front Porch Republic, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) educational organization. Your donation will be used immediately to help us improve our site, recruit writers, and compensate (just a little) our hard-working technological and editorial assistants. It will also help us sponsor speakers and conferences across the country. Most importantly, your support of FPR is an investment in our vision: place, limits, liberty.